Safe Passage Initiative partners with ADAMHS

9 helped to drug rehab

In the three month since Eastlake Police Department kicked off it’s Safe Passage Initiative, the program has helped place nine Eastlake residents into a drug rehabilitation program including one who came seeking help at the initiatives June 12, kick-off event.

They are now hopeful to help even more people into treatment with their recent collaboration with the Lake County Alcohol, Drug Addiction, and Mental Health Services Board.

The Safe Passage Initiative is a community policing program that changes the way residents searching for help with addictions to opioids and fentanyl are taken care of. The initiative is designed to get addicts into recovery and get them the help they need in a rehabilitation program instead of jail.

Breaking ground

While the initiative has been making strides in Cuyahoga County and other areas throughout Ohio, the Eastlake program is the first of its kind in Lake County.

Eastlake police and the victim advocates for the department saw the need for such a program when Eastlake saw the overdose rates in the city nearly triple between 2015 and 2016.

In 2015, the police department dealt with 24 overdoses, and then saw that number jump to 67 the next year. These numbers continue to rise, according to victim advocate Katie Granchi.

“This (Safe Passage) is giving us another option to battle the worst drug epidemic that most police officers have ever seen in their career,” Police Chief Larry Reik said.

The chief, who views the initiative as taking baby steps, reached out to ADAMHS to see what additional resources were available.

During a Sept. 5 meeting between the chief, police department victim advocate Ruth Marshall, ADAMHS Executive Director Kimberly Fraser, ADAMHS Director of Quality and Clinical Operations Christine Lakomiak and Michael O’Brien, community liaison for Windsor Laurelwood, the wheels were set in motion for a joint collaborative effort.

Heart of the matter

Reik told the attendees at the meeting that the city lost two residents that week do to drug overdoses and that the department measures their failures by reading the obituaries.

He also thought this was going to be a constant and that after talking to judges, other officers and members of ADAMHS, it reiterated how much they are failing because these people aren’t getting into some kind of program.

The chief has a desire to be comfortable in knowing that the department is doing everything they can to get those who want help into the system.

“They (addicts) got a lot of turns they have to make on their own,” Reik said. “The legislature is giving them the immunity and we’re helping with the process and you guys (ADAMHS) are helping with the treatment. So, if somebody fails, overdoses and passes away, it shouldn’t be because we aren’t doing our job, and by talking to every one, we all seem to be on

The process

the same page with that.”

Reik wants to be sure that when someone comes into the station late at night seeking help and he calls on his victim advocates that they are comfortable with the resources that they have and people they are able to reach out to.

The chief believes there are a lot of barriers and red tape that they can intentionally take out of the way by working with the ADAMHS Board.

When a person comes into the station seeking safe passage, advocates will gather background information on them.

The chief notes that it’s not a “get out of jail free” card, that if the person has warrants they will have to satisfy those and if they got caught with the drugs they can’t declare safe passages avoid being arrested.

Once the person seeking is help is through the system and they are serious they can start the program. If not warrants are outstanding they can start the program.

“If they bring in heroin or old needles when seeking help, its not a priority for us to charge them,” Reik said. “The needles would be a misdemeanor anyway and the residue that’s just not consequential if what they are trying to do is get out of that life.”

Prior to the collaboration with ADAMHS, when someone came into the station seeking help the victim advocates would make

phone calls to find available resources to get them help.

“Typically they come in here with a loved one and pretty much the loved one wants it more than the person obviously, so they are more than willing to transport them anywhere we send them,” Marshall said. “We kind of get a feel with the person, are they detoxing, are they ill, do they need medical treatment, are they looking for inpatient or outpatient treatment, and how much are they willing to do, and then we start calling facilities.

Fraser pointed out that with the resources the ADAMHS Board has coordinated on the back end a collaboration between the two programs would make the transition from SAFE Passages into a program so much more easier.

Impact on care

Victim advocates wouldn’t have to worry about such issues as whether the person seeking help has insurance or not.

“We know that whether someone has Medicaid, private insurance or nothing that the chances of them getting an inpatient stay or getting referred to the right outpatient providers with all the supports is challenging,” Fraser said. “So we use our local ADAMHS dollars to help insure that we can meet them at whatever level they want.”

ADAMHS has a partnership with Lake Health that places psychiatric social workers in both TriPoint and Lake West 24/7

which would allow Eastlake advocates to now have direct access to these social workers where they can arrange ahead of time for a person seeking help to be meet at the hospital one and help them get the process started.

According to Fraser, as long as the person is a Lake County resident the people in the emergency department will work to figure out if they need Signature Health or Lake-Geauga Recovery Center or screened into the Windsor Laurelwood program, which is a seven- to 10-day inpatient treatment paid for by the ADAMHS Board.

The ADAMHS Board then works with Signature Health to establish an outpatient plan for after their release from Windsor Laurelwood.

Fraser believes the ADAMHS Board offers help that works hand-in-hand with the Safe Passage Initiative.

If somebody walks in the door here (Eastlake Police Station) as I see it, it’s your job is to say congratulations, this is phenomenal, thank you for reaching out, we are here for you. Let us hand you off a hot hand off from off us not to a random hospital system but a psychiatric social worker in the emergency department who is going to be poised there ready and waiting for you,” Fraser told Marshall.

Marshall noted that the number one thing she hears from people is that there are no beds available for those seeking treatment.

“That’s a myth. There’s

places and even if you don’t have insurance there are options,” Marshall said. “I know through Safe Passage we have been able to place people within hours. Out of the nine that have come in seeking help they have all been placed.”

The collaboration between Safe Passage and ADAMHS has now increased the options available.

More support

In addition to the ADAMHS Board working on expanding the services to provide peer support at the hospital in addition to a social worker, they also have to ability to initiate a quick response team consisting of the Sheriff’s Department, a behavioral health specialist and another first responder who can mobilize out to the residence and encourage the person to return if they walk out on treatment.

According to Fraser, with the collaboration, the ADAMHS Board is working to make it easier and more seamless to let Safe Passage refer people to their services through the emergency departments. Fraser believes this to be the beginning of a very productive relationship.

“We are so excited to see Eastlake police really engaging in the process and being part of the solution, Fraser said on behalf of the ADAMHS Board on teaming with Safe Passage. “It’s always exciting work sideby-side with law enforcement to see somebody get the help they need,”